Impacting his community and inspiring others

**Eric Kumm was named the Iowa Hero at the Iowa-Nebraska football game on Friday, November 24. At left is Iowa Athletics Director Beth Goetz; at right is his wife, Michele.** SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Denison Native Eric Kumm, a 1984 Denison High School (DHS) graduate, was honored as the “Iowa Hero” at last week’s University of Iowa vs. Nebraska football game.

The game, called the “Heroes Game,” was the 13th annual meeting between the Hawkeyes and the Cornhuskers.

According to Pioneer, the title sponsor of the game, the purpose of selecting individuals from both states is to recognize and celebrate “local heroes who exemplify the goal of positively impacting their community and inspiring others.”

Eric was recognized for his role in helping students achieve careers in agriculture.

He has a degree in agriculture education from Northwest Missouri State, and has served as an ag teacher and FFA advisor for nearly 35 years.

Eric taught at West Sioux High School and Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn High School before landing at South O’Brien High School in 1995.

His wife, Michele, is the art director of the Sanford Museum in Cherokee.

Eric said he appreciates the education he received at DHS.

“I had Randy Kuhlmann as an ag teacher and enjoyed taking classes there and being involved in FFA activities,” he said. “There were many other instructors at Denison High School that had an influence on my career in education; I think we were pretty lucky in Denison to have outstanding teachers.”

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**Iowa Hero Eric Kumm, left, and Nebraska Hero Josh Hicks hold their Heroes awards with the Heroes Game trophy between them. Iowa won the game by a score of 13-10.**

For the last 15 years, he has taught agriculture and industrial tech classes.

“We’re a little bit smaller school,” Eric said. “When I first got to South O’Brien, there were about 90 kids in a class, and we’re down to about 42 kids in a class.”

When the previous industrial tech instructor left, Eric was asked to take on some of his responsibilities.

“In this past year, they passed a bond issue to build a new facility for ag and industrial tech, and part of the plan is to hopefully hire a full-time industrial tech teacher once again,” he said. “Career tech education is coming back around – people are finding it’s kind of important to have graduates in these areas.”

Eric said he believes he is in the right place.

“It’s a good school system; they’ve been very supportive of what we wanted to do with the program,” he said. “There are always ups and downs with anything, but for the most part we’ve had a pretty good run here. It’s something different every day. The ag part of it is intracurricular with the FFA, instead of an extracurricular, so what we do in the class ties in with FFA and vice versa. It’s fun working with the kids no matter what careers they end up going into.”

Eric said his teachers in Denison were good role models.

“I don’t think anyone that had gone through Denison during our time would question the quality of teachers we had; we were pretty lucky,” he said. “They made learning fun. They challenged you to try to do your best and be your best and showed that they cared. I think that made it a good experience – and I’m sure they have good instructors there, now.”

A former student, now a Pioneer dealer, nominated Eric for the Iowa Hero award.

“I was visiting with him this summer and he said, ‘Do you mind if I throw your name into a nomination for something?’ and I said go ahead,” Eric said.

He was surprised when a representative from the University of Iowa Athletic Department told him he was a finalist.

“I didn’t know what he had nominated me for; it was kind of neat to find that out,” he said. “For the past two weeks, they were lining things up and getting everything organized for the day.”

He and Josh Hicks, the Nebraska Hero, were recognized at the game, which was played at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Josh helped rescue a passenger from a submerged vehicle in a lake.

Eric said he felt honored to have received the award – but it also made him uncomfortable.

“Because I do like to stay behind the scenes and let the kids have the recognition - but it’s nice to be recognized for work that you do,” he said. “You don’t always know what impact you’ve had on kids throughout a teaching career, so it’s very humbling that there are people that thought I did a good job.”

He doesn’t see the award as an individual recognition.

“Things like this happen because there has been tremendous support from family and friends and the communities around here that support our programs and support our schools,” Eric said. “I think it’s more of a recognition for our school system and our communities.”

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